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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27188134">The Evaporated</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinnenotsubasa/pseuds/rinnenotsubasa'>rinnenotsubasa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SEVENTEEN (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Mentions of mutilation, Missing Persons, Morally Ambiguous Character, body disposal, but no explicit description, mentions of dead bodies, no it's not joshua's</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 03:55:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,224</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27188134</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinnenotsubasa/pseuds/rinnenotsubasa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how Hong Joshua ceased to exist.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>SVTOXIC FEST 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Evaporated</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The warnings are in the tags.</p><p>As I also mentioned in the tag, the dead bodies in this fic do not include Joshua, so I didn’t put a Major Character Death warning.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hong Joshua didn’t actually “know” Matsumura Hokuto. He was simply a neighbor living three doors away from the Japanese immigrant on the second floor of a worn out apartment building, located at the skirt of Daejeon city. They never shared a single conversation in the 2 years they lived here, the only sign that they recognized each other’s presence was when the 75-year-old Mrs. Bang came to check things out and collect rent from her tenants. There would be at least one unlucky occupant who got roped into a clearly unwanted long chat with Mrs. Bang, and whenever Hokuto or Joshua drew the short straw, they would send each other a sympathetic gaze as they passed and walked away to hide in the safety of their own rooms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite this, Joshua was the first one to realize when Hokuto went missing. Two weeks before he saw Mrs. Bang banging on Hokuto’s door for the late rent payment, Joshua started noticing the letters and advertising pamphlets overflowing from Hokuto’s post box. For two years Joshua had never seen Hokuto leaving his mails piling up. Also on Sundays when Hokuto was home, he would often let the window next to his front door slightly open, a behavior Joshua could understand as their rooms had terrible air circulation. After 3 weekends of seeing the tightly closed windows, Joshua’s suspicion turned into conviction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it’s not like Joshua could do anything about it. He didn’t have Hokuto’s number or information about his friends and relatives. Not once did Joshua encounter Hokuto inviting someone into his room so there’s no one to confirm Hokuto’s whereabouts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>One day, pressured by the feeling of guilt (from doing nothing), concern (which surprisingly was still there somewhere inside Joshua), and curiosity, Joshua peeked into the mails threatening to fall out from Hokuto’s post box. None of the letters were from another person, only formal letters from the bank and other institutions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When two months passed and there were no signs of Hokuto coming back, Mrs. Bang announced that she’s renting out Hokuto’s room. Joshua happened to be walking through the corridor when Mrs. Bang was standing in front of Hokuto’s door. He had the choice to fasten his steps to enter his own room, hoping he’ll be excused from Mrs. Bang’s rambling by slightly bowing his head and giving a courtesy smile. And yet Joshua found himself approaching the old lady and asked what she would do with Hokuto’s stuff.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mrs. Bang started her explanation with a loud click of her tongue. “I’ll have my grandchildren pack them and move them to my storage house.” It seemed that she would rather throw or sell them away but worried about the trouble she’ll get if Hokuto reappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joshua had no idea why he did it. Before Mrs. Bang emptied Hokuto’s room, Joshua found himself loitering in front of his neighbor’s door. It took him a few minutes of deliberation before finally reaching for the knob. To his surprise, it was unlocked. It might be that Hokuto didn’t lock it before he disappeared, or maybe Mrs. Bang forgot when she went in with her spare keys. Anyway, that’s how Joshua managed to enter the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a particularly sparse room, with most objects being items necessary for livelihood such as rice cooker and broomstick. There were no articles that indicated Hokuto having any kind of hobby. No posters of a rock band or books lining up on a shelf. The only personal item Joshua could find was a framed photo of 6 young men, resting on the small low table in front of the TV. Hokuto was in the picture, standing on the second from the right with a wide smile that Joshua didn’t know Hokuto was capable of showing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joshua flipped the picture, taking the photo out of the frame and tried to find some kind of writing that might give a clue to the mystery of Hokuto’s disappearance. There was nothing. He couldn’t get anything from the picture itself as he didn’t recognize the faces aside from Hokuto and neither the background captured behind them. He thought that was it. Dead end. Case closed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So Joshua decided he had intruded for too long and made a move to leave the room. But as he put the photo back to the table, he noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor right below. He picked it up, not knowing what to expect. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What he saw in his palm was a cutout from the newspaper. It’s a classified ads with the words “Moving Service. Sajik-ro 3-gil 45.” That’s it. No company name, no phone number.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For some unknown reason Joshua felt like he should take the ads with him, so he put the paper inside his pants pocket and left the room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Joshua stood in front of the small park, right where a metal pole as tall as his knees stood and informed the park address. Sajik-ro 3-gil 45. No mistaking it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was two weeks after Joshua went to check on Matsumura Hokuto’s room and found a newspaper cutout with this address.  Same as the time Joshua put the piece of paper into his pocket, he didn’t exactly know why he decided to come here. The ads might have mistaken the exact lot number, but Joshua couldn’t see any building with the signboard of a moving company on the street around the park. Or maybe he missed it. The area was dark, among the lamps set on the street there were only three that worked, including the one at the entrance of this park. Joshua briefly wondered about the broken lamps. How long had they been forgotten? Did the people ever bother to fix them?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They’re just like Matsumura Hokuto. And you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring the small voice in his head, Joshua walked into the pitch darkness. There was only one working lamp at the entrance of the park, which barely reached the inside of the park. He could make out the silhouette of a double swing and a see-saw. That’s it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joshua thought of going further into the dim park and trying to see what he’ll find, but his feet refused to move. This bodily reaction brought a sense of fear throughout him. He should go back to his apartment. It was crazy of him to come to an unknown place in the middle of the night, looking for someone he barely knew, based on a piece of paper that might have no correlation whatsoever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel his feet starting to respond again and was about to leave this place. But before he could fully turn around, Joshua felt a tap to his left shoulder. The gentle touch succeeded in making Joshua jerk in surprise. His right hand automatically reached to his pants pocket to get to his pocket knife, the only means of self defense he had. He didn’t pull it out, yet, but gripped it tight as he turned his body fully and took several steps to the back, creating a distance between him and the new presenc</span>
  <span>e. It took some time for Joshua’s eyes to register the figure standing a few meters in front of him. A man. It was too dark to catch any details but judging from the mess on the top of his head and his obviously flimsy clothing, he was probably a local homeless. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go right and take another right when you find the pig,” the unknown man said as he gestured with his hands towards the exit of the park. It seemed that the man thought it was enough of an explanation and he already started to walk away before Joshua could comprehend his words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joshua could’ve just let the man go, dismiss him as a crazy homeless guy, and yet a voice in his head told him to stop the man and ask, “What’s there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man stopped on his tracks and twisted his neck. “The Mover. Evaporator. Whatever they call it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joshua still didn’t understand what the man said, but the word “mover” caught his attention. He could feel his grip on the knife in his right pocket loosen as his attention traveled to a piece of paper tucked inside his left. The nameless moving company.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Joshua’s mind was occupied, the (allegedly) homeless man skirted towards the left side of the park and was gone. Once again Joshua was alone in the dark and if he had the slightest bit of common sense remaining, he would also take a left turn and head back home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However Joshua’s behavior so far had shown that his lack of common sense, and it didn’t seem like he would regain it for the rest of the night. And so Joshua took the road to the right. A few hundred meters and he found a large pig statue in front of a two story building. There’s a narrow path between the building and what looked like an abandoned house. There’s light at the other end of the path, but nothing in between, so he’d have to walk through the dark for several seconds. Since the mysterious man barely gave him any explanation, Joshua didn’t know what to expect as he took one step into the darkness. Then another, and another….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Joshua got over it in less than a month.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was exactly 23 days ago when he was introduced to his new job at a fertilizer factory, in the fringe of a small town called Joda. Here Joshua was known as Jisoo. That’s the name he gave to Jun the Mover when the other male helped him create a new identity. A different name might have been better honestly; this is his chance to get rid of his old life completely. And yet Joshua couldn’t let go of the nickname his grandmother gave him. It’s not his official name, and his other family members had never called him that. Only grandma. The single element of his old life that Joshua was willing to preserve. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hong Joshua had evaporated. Now there’s only Kim Jisoo. A new citizen of Joda and employee of Joda Fertilizer Company. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When giving him the new identity, Jun had explained to Jisoo that he would be expected to “participate in some illegal activities” as a price for his new life. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>No worries”</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Jun said with a foxy smile that should have made Joshua worry. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>You will never get caught for it…. as long as you follow what your caretaker says</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Jisoo assumed it was some kind of smuggling. In reality, his job did involve moving something illegally, but it’s not an exhaustive description of his occupation</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He started by getting on the passenger seat of the mini truck container Jihoon drove. Seungcheol, their direct superior, said that usually two people were assigned for the pickup, even when the amount of load they transport sometimes increased. For Joshua’s first week on the job he was assigned with Jihoon and travelled around neighboring cities. They would go out of Joda delivering fertilizers, then went back with one or two bags of human body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bodies were already wrapped neatly when Jisoo arrived to pick them up. Usually taken care of by their clients, but if they couldn’t do it, the company would send Wonwoo separately to prepare the corpses. Some customers also requested crime scene cleaning. Seungcheol mentioned that someday Jisoo might be assigned to help Wonwoo with that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Starting from the second week, Jisoo was stationed at the factory building. Most of the time he would be with the other workers and make actual fertilizers. But whenever the delivery truck came, he would move to a separate room with knives, grinders and tubs. The bodies that came out of the truck container were brought there for Jisoo to process. Seokmin taught him how to separate the limbs and the best way to soak them into sulfuric acid so they could melt without a trace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The very first day at work, Seungcheol gave him a paper bag with a quick but not unkind “You might need it.” Jisoo was confused at first, but later found the gift useful as he threw up his lunch after loading his first body into the truck (the body itself was already wrapped, but the scene hadn’t been completely cleaned). Seokmin also gave him one on the first day of factory duty, albeit with considerably less warmth in his gesture and words as compared to Seungcheol. Jisoo also used the paper bag from Seokmin. But it was only for those two times. The rest of his working days went free of vomit, and now Jisoo didn’t even flinch as he put someone’s arm into the acid tub.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes Jisoo questioned how quick he became accustomed to his new job. Other times he wondered if Matsumura Hokuto was doing the same thing in another remote town somewhere in South Korea. Mostly though, he brushed off any thoughts with a blink of an eye and resumed his work efficiently so he could clock off on time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After work he would go to his new home, an apartment room that was not much of an upgrade from his old one in Daejeon. Even so he always slept well ever since he moved here. Even the night of his first day at work.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Not much happened here. I actually planned for a much longer fic but currently not in the right headspace to write it. Still, I wanted to participate in this fest so I decided to submit what I can. Hopefully it’s worth reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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